Nick Lodolo

[Bourgeois Zee]

To make my point clearer, right now the Reds have 6 prospects near ready for the majors.

Lodolo
Greene
Ashcraft
Williamson
Sanmartin
McLain

Which ones are going to be productive in MLB in six years? Pick them right now. If you can’t, you need to manipulate all of their service time. That is going to go over great in the clubhouse.

Assuming health:

Greene and Lodolo will be productive guys. I'd start both at the major league level to see if they might earn that new draft pick available to ROY award winners (and 2nd and 3rd place finishers). That is more valuable for a team like Cincinnati (who refuses to spend money commensurate with winning pennants) than an extra year of control, sadly. Having two extra draft picks as a result of ROY voting seems like a good plan. The Reds can then deal both (a year earlier). If either struggles-- even a little bit-- and look to drop out of the that top three Rookie voting, I'd slip them to AAA to work on their stuff. It'd be either the draft pick or service time manipulation.

Ashcraft will also be a keeper, either in the pen or the rotation. I suspect he'll be a mid-season call-up this year either as a bullpen guy or as a starting replacement for Castillo, Minor, Mahle, Sanmartin, or Gutierrez. (Or if they're ineffective, Greene or Lodolo.) That in itself is service time maniulation, I guess. It does limit his chances for ROY votes. Ah, well. Kids wasn't getting them anyway.

Williamson, I haven't seen enough of yet. Can't decide, based on peripherals alone, if he's more Ashcraft or Lodolo. Might make sense to stagger his time, then. Keep him in AAA until September call-up, then see what the off-season holds before making that decision. (I could see the same argument for Ashcraft, honestly.)

Sanmartin is a depth piece who may carve out a year or two of effectiveness, but he's not worth protecting for that extra season.

McLain is a long ways from being in the same stratosphere as those guys. He still has to prove he can hit AA pitching, let alone major league pitching. There is no Red hitting prospect who currently needs a plan to have his service time manipulated.

[InsaneinthBrame]

Assuming health:

Greene and Lodolo will be productive guys. I'd start both at the major league level to see if they might earn that new draft pick available to ROY award winners (and 2nd and 3rd place finishers). That is more valuable for a team like Cincinnati (who refuses to spend money commensurate with winning pennants) than an extra year of control, sadly. Having two extra draft picks as a result of ROY voting seems like a good plan. The Reds can then deal both (a year earlier). If either struggles-- even a little bit-- and look to drop out of the that top three Rookie voting, I'd slip them to AAA to work on their stuff. It'd be either the draft pick or service time manipulation.

Ashcraft will also be a keeper, either in the pen or the rotation. I suspect he'll be a mid-season call-up this year either as a bullpen guy or as a starting replacement for Castillo, Minor, Mahle, Sanmartin, or Gutierrez. (Or if they're ineffective, Greene or Lodolo.) That in itself is service time maniulation, I guess. It does limit his chances for ROY votes. Ah, well. Kids wasn't getting them anyway.

Williamson, I haven't seen enough of yet. Can't decide, based on peripherals alone, if he's more Ashcraft or Lodolo. Might make sense to stagger his time, then. Keep him in AAA until September call-up, then see what the off-season holds before making that decision. (I could see the same argument for Ashcraft, honestly.)

Sanmartin is a depth piece who may carve out a year or two of effectiveness, but he's not worth protecting for that extra season.

McLain is a long ways from being in the same stratosphere as those guys. He still has to prove he can hit AA pitching, let alone major league pitching. There is no Red hitting prospect who currently needs a plan to have his service time manipulated.

Well you never know if they will get that extra year of control. The collective bargaining agreement is up in 5 years and that is before Greene and Lodolo reach that point. Would not be surprised to see the service time manipulation be addressed at that point.

[Rdirtypirates]

It’s pretty cool for young guys to see this,” India said. “We want young guys in the minor leagues to see that we’re giving young guys an opportunity right away rather than manipulating service time. I hope guys realize that and work even harder to get to where we are.”
https://sports.yahoo.com/no-fear-pro...175054567.html

It seems like a bad idea making all your top picks mad by manipulating them giving them an extra year of control. It is just bad business. What I don't understand is the people who agree with this cheap philosophy, and then actually claim they were on the players side during the lockout. You do realize you are cheating a player out of potential millions and lining the owners pockets even more. If they are ready, they are ready, and Lodolo is ready.

[missionhockey21]

It’s pretty cool for young guys to see this,” India said. “We want young guys in the minor leagues to see that we’re giving young guys an opportunity right away rather than manipulating service time. I hope guys realize that and work even harder to get to where we are.”
https://sports.yahoo.com/no-fear-pro...175054567.html

It seems like a bad idea making all your top picks mad by manipulating them giving them an extra year of control. It is just bad business. What I don't understand is the people who agree with this cheap philosophy, and then actually claim they were on the players side during the lockout. You do realize you are cheating a player out of potential millions and lining the owners pockets even more. If they are ready, they are ready, and Lodolo is ready.

Yep.

If they are ready, they are ready.

Losing a year of control only benefits the owners. We as fans should demand owners willing to call players up when ready and pay them if they part of our core.

If we lose a year of Greene or Lodolo because of this, it’s only Bob’s fault. Because nothing will stop him from being able to extend them later, only aligning resources to payroll.

Let the kids play if they earned it.

[*BaseClogger*]

It’s pretty cool for young guys to see this,” India said. “We want young guys in the minor leagues to see that we’re giving young guys an opportunity right away rather than manipulating service time. I hope guys realize that and work even harder to get to where we are.”
https://sports.yahoo.com/no-fear-pro...175054567.html

It seems like a bad idea making all your top picks mad by manipulating them giving them an extra year of control. It is just bad business. What I don't understand is the people who agree with this cheap philosophy, and then actually claim they were on the players side during the lockout. You do realize you are cheating a player out of potential millions and lining the owners pockets even more. If they are ready, they are ready, and Lodolo is ready.

I don’t support service time manipulation because it saves the owners money. They can raise the league minimum to $10MM for all I care. What I care about is the Reds getting six years and five months worth of playing career rather than only six years from their best players…

[Z-Fly]

The odds that any player makes it to his six year of MLB starting is rather low, insanely low for pitchers. It's nearly impossible to predict who will need it.

Mahle for instance, was a second tier prospect when he came up, with big questions of whether or not he would even be a MLB starting pitcher. No one at the time was worrying about his sixth year in the majors, they were only worrying about if he would stick in the major at all. If we expected the Reds to manipulate his service time back then, then they should have manipulated every player's service time. The Reds manipulated Senzel's time, and it looks to be a moot point now.

The odds that it pays off are so small and the odds that it pisses a player off are so high, it really doesn't make much sense.

Doug Gray was pretty vocal about it, at the time. My opinion, if you are pinching pennies, you need to take every advantage you can.

[MikeS21]

The problem with this whole service time manipulation debate is that there is an extremely fine line between service manipulation and legitimate developmental processes for prospects. Of course, players are going to be convinced that they are ready for the major leagues before they are legitimately ready. That decision is not up to fans or eager young players. It’s up to the team’s development department.

Of course, there’s financial factors involved. Teams draft players who take six years to finally become a solid major leaguer, and right when he is ready to contribute, he walks away. That’s a lot of investment for no return.

Regardless, there are legitimate reasons to keep Hunter Greene in the minors for a few weeks to work on his pitching, evidenced by his mediocre spring training numbers, as there was to keep Nick Senzel in the minors to learn how to play CF after only playing there about a month in spring training. Not service manipulation, but developmental reasons.

Lodolo, on the other hand, looks far ahead of Greene, both in maturity and secondary pitch effectiveness, and his superior command and control. Lodolo is ready for the majors now.

[Rdirtypirates]

I don’t support service time manipulation because it saves the owners money. They can raise the league minimum to $10MM for all I care. What I care about is the Reds getting six years and five months worth of playing career rather than only six years from their best players…

Regardless, how you look at it, this is ultimately you being unfair to the player. IMO this is shady. You are saying it is ok to keep someone in the minors so your team can control them for an additional 5 months. You are stealing money from this player and think it is ok because you get to watch a player for five extra months. Think about if someone did this to your average worker. They would quit. You can justify your opinion anyway you want, but all you are doing in this scenario is screwing players. It is a horrible way to run a franchise. I guess no one remembers Senzel complaining. Again no matter the spin you try to put on it, it effects players and upsets them.

[Ron Madden]

Charlie Goldsmith @CharlieG__

The Reds are playing a simulated game. Nick Lodolo is on the mound, and he remains on track to start on Wednesday

.

[Ron Madden]

Cincinnati Reds @Reds

Welcome to The Show, Nick Lodolo❗️

The Reds' 2019 first-round pick and current No. 2 prospect is scheduled to start and make his major league debut tomorrow against the Guardians.

[Ron Madden]

Charlie Goldsmith
@CharlieG__

Nick Lodolo: “It’s something that’s been a lifelong dream.”

He said he entered the spring with the mindset of making the rotation, and he’ll face Cleveland tomorrow.

[Ron Madden]

Bobby Nightengale
@nightengalejr

Riley O’Brien was designated for assignment and Daniel Duarte was optioned to Triple-A. Reds needed to make room on the roster for Nick Lodolo before his start today.

[Ron Madden]

Lodolo keeps Reds close vs. Padres (April 18)
Like his Major League debut last week, Nick Lodolo’s second start went as a loss. But his outing during a 4-1 defeat to the Padres on Monday at Petco Park was viewed as progress for Lodolo.

The left-hander, ranked by MLB Pipeline as the Reds’ No. 2 prospect, allowed three earned runs and six hits over five innings with two walks and eight strikeouts.

“I thought it was big,” said Lodolo, baseball’s No. 41 overall prospect, “especially because I thought I kept us in the game. That was my biggest part, especially after I gave up the homer.”

With a 1-0 first-inning lead, Lodolo threw back-to-back changeups to Manny Machado. The second one was slugged for a two-run homer to left field. Lodolo recovered to retire the rest of the side in order.

“I just kept going after it,” said Lodolo, who gave up five earned runs over four innings vs. Cleveland in his debut on April 13. “That’s what I told myself, ‘Start over. New ballgame. There are no outs.’ It’s easier said than done, but I thought after that I responded pretty well.”

Lodolo allowed one more run in the fourth inning on Ha-Seong Kim’s two-out RBI single.

“I thought from the very beginning, he was really excellent,” Reds manager David Bell said. “Great fastball. He didn’t throw his slider a lot, had a good changeup.

I think it was back-to-back changeups to Machado just a great hitter and that’s going to happen. Other than that, he was really good tonight. I thought it was a big step in his development. Especially after last time not going exactly how he wanted, I thought he was much better tonight.”

Lodolo takes step forward in second start
https://www.mlb.com/reds/cincinnati-...spects-updates

[Ron Madden]

Charlie Goldsmith
@CharlieG__

Nick Lodolo was known as a prospect for his command and his willingness to attack the strike zone.

The first three innings today have been a snapshot of what made him such a highly touted prospect.

[RED VAN HOT]

FB command has been outstanding today. He is right around the edges of the zone.